I’ve been reading up on and looking for ebikes for about two months. I’m looking for a city/urban bike with enough power to climb hills in a $2700-$3400 range and sized narrow and light enough for me to lug into a first floor apartment. I’m in Maine and finding local shops that carry electric bikes has been a challenge. I’ve been able to test out these bikes in person:
Townie Go! 8i - very heavy bike, didn’t shift smoothly, not the style I’m after.
BULLS Lacuba Evo E8 - Fantastic bike, but heavy and out of my price range.
Haibike 2018 SDURO FULLSEVEN 7.5 - Not looking for a mountain bike or full suspension. Tried this to get a feel for Haibike sizes. They're huge.
Redux iE Step Over - This threw a chain about 5 minutes into the test drive. It looked identical to the iZip E3 Moda that was in the shop.
Fuji E-TRAVERSE 1.3 - This bike was noticeably worse at climbing hills than the others I tested and was more on the mountain bike side than I was looking for.
I tried to test a Norco VLT R1/S1 as I have a local Norco dealer, but I've been told those models are discontinued.
I've reached out to Gazelle dealers up to two and a half hours away to see if I could try a Gazelle Cityzen T10 HMB. None had a bike in stock for testing, and the one shop that was willing to order one said Gazelle had nothing in stock that was a reasonable size and wasn't sure if there were more coming to the US market.
So, it's been frustrating.
Here's what I have next on the list:
Specialized Vado 3.0
I have a bike shop in the neighborhood 3 blocks away that carries Specialized. I'm contacting them today to see if they have a bike I can test out. My concern with Specialized is that they have their own custom shaped battery (not sure how hard it would be to replace in a few years) and the Specialized forum is full of bad experiences with various models of the Vado. It does have a Brose motor which seems to be considered in the top 2 for brands.
Haikbike 2018 SDURO TREKKING 7.0
This bike has a Bosch system, which seems to be either the consensus pick for #1 or at least in the top two. My concern here is the closet bike shop to me that carries Haibike is two hours away. I'm not sure what that means for getting service. Also, Haibike seems to be primarily a mountain bike manufacturer. I've yet to lay hands on one of their trekking bikes and I'm not sure how well suited it us to my use case. The shop that's two hours away is ordering some of these to put out on the floor and I'm going to see if I have time for another trip out next week.
Karmic Koben S
I really like the look of this bike. I like that it has a carbon belt and a nuvinci hub. I live on the ocean, so having parts that are internally sealed or more resistant to moisture is appealing. The Koben is also less expensive than most of the bikes I've been looking at. That said, I'm not sure how good/reliable the Bafang Max motor is. I'm not sure how hard it would be to replace the battery compared to a common Bosch unit. The Karmic bikes website is basically a Shopify page with no posted return policy, warrantee information, manual, or even a FAQ. There's no way I can test this bike before buying and I'm not sure how hard it would be to get a local bike shop to service it. That said, the few reviews I can find here or otherwise are generally favorable.
Do people have positive experiences with Specialized Vado, Haibike Trekking models for city use, or Karmic Kobens? Anyone have one of these or similar bikes for 2+ years and would be willing to share impressions?
Townie Go! 8i - very heavy bike, didn’t shift smoothly, not the style I’m after.
BULLS Lacuba Evo E8 - Fantastic bike, but heavy and out of my price range.
Haibike 2018 SDURO FULLSEVEN 7.5 - Not looking for a mountain bike or full suspension. Tried this to get a feel for Haibike sizes. They're huge.
Redux iE Step Over - This threw a chain about 5 minutes into the test drive. It looked identical to the iZip E3 Moda that was in the shop.
Fuji E-TRAVERSE 1.3 - This bike was noticeably worse at climbing hills than the others I tested and was more on the mountain bike side than I was looking for.
I tried to test a Norco VLT R1/S1 as I have a local Norco dealer, but I've been told those models are discontinued.
I've reached out to Gazelle dealers up to two and a half hours away to see if I could try a Gazelle Cityzen T10 HMB. None had a bike in stock for testing, and the one shop that was willing to order one said Gazelle had nothing in stock that was a reasonable size and wasn't sure if there were more coming to the US market.
So, it's been frustrating.
Here's what I have next on the list:
Specialized Vado 3.0
I have a bike shop in the neighborhood 3 blocks away that carries Specialized. I'm contacting them today to see if they have a bike I can test out. My concern with Specialized is that they have their own custom shaped battery (not sure how hard it would be to replace in a few years) and the Specialized forum is full of bad experiences with various models of the Vado. It does have a Brose motor which seems to be considered in the top 2 for brands.
Haikbike 2018 SDURO TREKKING 7.0
This bike has a Bosch system, which seems to be either the consensus pick for #1 or at least in the top two. My concern here is the closet bike shop to me that carries Haibike is two hours away. I'm not sure what that means for getting service. Also, Haibike seems to be primarily a mountain bike manufacturer. I've yet to lay hands on one of their trekking bikes and I'm not sure how well suited it us to my use case. The shop that's two hours away is ordering some of these to put out on the floor and I'm going to see if I have time for another trip out next week.
Karmic Koben S
I really like the look of this bike. I like that it has a carbon belt and a nuvinci hub. I live on the ocean, so having parts that are internally sealed or more resistant to moisture is appealing. The Koben is also less expensive than most of the bikes I've been looking at. That said, I'm not sure how good/reliable the Bafang Max motor is. I'm not sure how hard it would be to replace the battery compared to a common Bosch unit. The Karmic bikes website is basically a Shopify page with no posted return policy, warrantee information, manual, or even a FAQ. There's no way I can test this bike before buying and I'm not sure how hard it would be to get a local bike shop to service it. That said, the few reviews I can find here or otherwise are generally favorable.
Do people have positive experiences with Specialized Vado, Haibike Trekking models for city use, or Karmic Kobens? Anyone have one of these or similar bikes for 2+ years and would be willing to share impressions?
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